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Sunday, May 19, 2019

A while back, I had the dreaded Ford transmission issue where the transmission eats itself apart. The housing is aluminum, and while that makes the transmission much lighter, it also makes it much weaker. The housing wore out from the inside, and my Mustang started slipping out of gear.

I had it taken to a recommended shop to be rebuilt. Not only were the internals replaced, but there was a metal band added to the inside of the housing to stop the issue from happening again. That is the official fix for that problem.

The car ran fine, but almost right away I noticed a bit of a delay when I first put the car in drive. Sometimes it seemed like the car was in third or fourth. It would rev up when I pressed on the gas, and then eventually softly engage. It didn’t happen all the time. A little bit later, I started to notice a whine in first and second.

I took it back, as it was still under warranty from the first rebuild. I was told the planetary gears (which were new parts they put in) were worn out. They replaced them and the torque converter, since metal shavings got inside.

When I got the car back, she pulled hard! Shifted well, lots of power, no delayed engagement. All was well.

Two days later, I got in my car and started to drive out of my complex. All was fine, and the car never needed to get out of second. When reached the longer road out to enter the main road, I noticed that when the car should have shifted to third, the RPMs kept climbing and climbing. Eventually, it slipped out of gear and revved up pretty damn high.

Hoping it was a fluke, I pulled out onto the main road and the same thing happened. When I got to a red light, I put the car in park, then drive again. Now nothing at all! Reverse worked, but there were cars behind me. Finally drive worked, and I made a U-turn and took it back home.

Guess I’ll have to take it back again. Here is a video of when I got home that night testing it out. I had to borrow someone else’s car for the day. What kind of car problems are you having?

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Thursday, May 2, 2019

I drive a lot, and I've seen some stupid things that people do on the roads. Pull to the Right Syndrome (PTR Syndrome) is real, and it will cause accidents.

On roadways where there are two or more lanes that's turn left, bad things tend to happen. All too frequently, people always seem to want to get into the far right lane after turning left, even if they are in the far left lane to start.

PTR Syndrome is when people expect others next to them to do this as well, or just don't pay attention and pull to the right.

I generally put myself in the farthest lane to the right before I turn, because I usually find myself needing to go the right. If I'm in the middle lane, I hold my place in that lane. When I turn left, I stay in that lane.

There are countless times (especially when there are three turn lanes) when the person to the left will almost crash into me, because I hold my position in the center lane, which I am legally supposed to do. They expect me to pull to the right.

Frequently they do this without even signaling. This is not only extremely dangerous, but an illegal lane change. You must use your signal when changing lanes. It is not optional.

If you have Pull to the Right Syndrome, there are things you can do. One, pay attention. Also, put down your damn phone and watch the road. Stop making stupid assumptions. Not everyone is going to be doing what you want or expect them to do.

There are rules and laws. Driving is a privilege. Respect it and pay attention. The disease is curable, and it starts with you.

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Tuesday, April 30, 2019

If you’ve followed us on social media, you know we work with Winter Park Paint and Collision and the Badass Body Shop on Safari HP’s custom Land Rover Defenders. That was a mouth-full, I know. Part of the prestige was the fact that Defenders were no longer made. After about 68 years of making the iconic boxy SUV that served military and civilians all over the world, Jaguar Land Rover stopped production of the Defender due to new emission standards set in place by the European Union (ironic now).

Well, the Defender is coming back, but its British blood is being transplanted to Slovakia. After two million had been made in the UK, the BBC reports “The new Defender will be built at the company's one billion pound (about $1.3 billion) plant in Nitra in Slovakia, which opened in October 2018.”

However, some members over on the Land Rover Defender Group on Facebook have voiced their opinion on the design saying that it looks like a simplified Discovery or a Ford Explorer. Others voiced their concern about its off-road capabilities. Surely those concerns have merit since most SUVs today seem to be designed for soccer moms to drive on freshly paved roads and maybe on some grass if the parking lot is full.

However, Bloomberg reports that the new Defender prototypes are being tested in the Borana Conservancy located in Kenya. They appear to be doing some pretty heavy rock crawling, but are also testing heavy load towing and river crossing. Engineering Director Nick Rogers assures us that this new Defender will be “the toughest and most capable Land Rover ever made.” Which I guess is why they have #BEST4X4XFAR on the side of the prototypes.

What do you think? Will this new Land Rover defend its title? Let us know in the comments below! Like what you see? Make sure you head on over and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, and be sure to follow us on Twitter for some exclusive content!

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Cars get rusty as time goes on. They are made of metal, so it’s as simple as that. Unless you are driving a 1980 AMC Eagle, it will happen to you. You have probably seen my 1971 Ford Torino 500 before if you have read this blog. If not, go check it out! It’s very rusty. Now, I do co-own a body shop, but for some strange reason, I decided to try to do everything at home by hand.

Sanding sort of worked, but I wanted to give Naval Jelly a try. You’re supposed to brush it on, and in five to ten minutes, rinse it off and the rust is gone. I have looked to see if anyone has used this on a car before. Many people have used it on small car parts and small sections of a car, but never large panels or parts of a car. So, I did.

I tested it out on a portion of the roof and part of the gas tank in the trunk. I left the first coat on for about 20 minutes. It did something. There was an outline where the product was, and that area was lighter. Now, this rust is pretty nasty. It’s deep, and has pitted the metal.

I decided to try another coat, but after hitting it with a wire brush and cleaning the area with acetone. After the second coat, the area got lighter again. So I followed the same steps: apply, sit, rise, wire brush, acetone, repeat.

Eventually, I started seeing bare metal on the gas tank. Finally! The roof seemed to have exposed an old layer of primer. I wanted to do more, but I unexpectedly had an unrelated issue I had to take care of. So, I just managed to do these smaller sections, but at least I manged to actually see Naval Jelly used on a car!

All in all, it worked. It wasn’t the most spectacular thing, but with some elbow grease, I would say that it is a good way to get rid of rust. With more time, I could have gotten much more off. Is it better than sanding? Well, sanding helped, but my arm was done by the time I finished. With this, I was feeling much less fatigued. So, I leave that choice up to you.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Well... I never thought it would happen to me, but I managed to lock myself out of my car. After about 20 minutes of trying with a wire hanger, I remembered the giant rust hole in my floors. The rest is history. Take a look at the video. How many have you been here before? Let me know your stories in the comment section.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

If you’ve seen this blog before, you probably have seen a few episodes of MotorTrend’s show Roadkill. It’s about two guys, David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan of Hot Rod Network, who build unique automotive creations and put those rides to the test. Road trips, dirt tracks, and so on.

As a fan of the American version of Top Gear, I fell in love with this show from the very beginning. It was one of MotorTrend’s most popular shows on YouTube when Angus MacKenzie announced that the channel would be bringing out new content. Roadkill soared in popularity. The episode “Rat Rod VS Lamborghini Aventador” has over 53 million views (the channel’s second highest viewed video). They also have 1.4 million followers on their Facebook page.

Well, MotorTrend changed. They stopped putting full content on their YouTube channel, and now have everything over at their own platform call MotorTrend On Demand (MTOD), which is a platform you have to pay for. I get it. As someone on YouTube myself, YouTube changed a lot recently, and it hurt a bunch of people. The problem is, it really hurt the little people. MotorTrend has 5.8 million subscribers. I assume they felt something too, and probably didn’t have as much creative control over the ads that they wanted.

MotorTrend On Demand was releasing the most current episode of Roadkill for free, and then when the next one was out, they would lock the previous one. I am the kind of person that has to watch things in order, even if it’s not needed. So, from the very beginning, I never missed one episode. Well, I missed one one day before it got locked. I haven’t watched one since. If this was something I paid for from the beginning, that would be a different story, but this was a change after years.

I’m all about what something is worth. I do believe the price is fair, but not when it always used to be free. Foe reference, the price is currently $4.99 per month. It’s a principle thing.

Any time a preview video is shown on YouTube, the subscribers vent and tell their frustration. Same with ads on Facebook. They only place that seems to be tolerable of MTOD are more of the people who like the Roadkill Facebook page.

One of their ads on Facebook for MTOD.

Roadkill helped me get through rough times. You know: life. We all have our ups and downs. Well, when I had downs, Roadkill would ALWAYS get me to laugh. Between the way Freiburger and Finnegan interact with each other, to the way their cars always break. I would always have the biggest smile on my face. I guess I won’t any more.

I know I’m just being cheap, but when the expectation is set that Roadkill will always be free, you expect that.

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Monday, September 3, 2018

I haven’t made a Rotting in Style post in a while, but Alaska is always on my mind. Four years ago, I was walking around the streets of the small town Skagway, Alaska, my favorite place ever. I came across this in someone’s driveway.

This is a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere II. It really caught my attention for two reasons: its condition and the fact that it reminded me of the car the bad guys drove in the 1997 movie Dukes of Hazard Reunion, which was one of my favorite childhood movies. I’m still not sure what car that was.

I can’t tell you much about this car. I don’t know what engine it had, the history behind it, or anything like that. This was just a random find that I walked onto someone’s property to film.

It is missing the trim on the side, but what I can be sure it does have is one hubcap, lots of rust, and moss. Moss grows on every abandoned car that I’ve seen in Alaska. It has a V8 badge on the hood, but they only offered V8s in this car: a 273, 383, 318, 340, or 426. Being a four door, I would assume it has one of the smaller ones.

The exterior had plenty of surface rust. There was a pretty big gash on the passenger side of the car. The interior was average for a car of its age. I don’t know when the last time it was driven. Based off the moss, dirt, and other signs, it looks like it has been sitting for a while. It’s not the most iconic car, but perhaps that makes it even more interesting to see sitting abandoned.

It was raining quite a bit that day, but it didn’t stop me from having a good day, and enjoying the amazing sights that Alaska had to offer, including this old school American steel, which remains Rotting in Style. I have plenty of other Rotting in Style videos and posts for you the check out on my blog and YouTube channel, and there are more to come. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Thanks for stopping by!